Once checked in, you can follow Rome’s streets past faded ochre façades and perhaps pause at a cast-iron nasone for a drink of cool water beneath the church domes. Around you, remnants of antiquity stand beside medieval buildings, Renaissance palaces and Baroque churches, each era written into the streets. Later, you join your Travel Director and fellow travelers for dinner with wine, exchanging names over your first meal together.
With fast-track entry, you’ll pass into the Vatican Museums with your Local Specialist, moving from ancient sculpture to the 120-meter Gallery of Maps, where painted coastlines, mountain ranges and gilded stucco turn Italy into a corridor of color. Inside the Sistine Chapel, you stop beneath the ceiling painted by Michelangelo where the hands of Adam and God reach across a tiny sliver of empty air. At St. Peter’s Basilica, you look closely at Michelangelo’s Pietà, its Carrara marble carved into soft folds of cloth and skin, then continue towards the dark bronze spirals of Bernini’s Baldachin as mosaics scatter color across the chapels above. Crossing the Tiber, you’ll reach the 600-meter sweep of the Circus Maximus. At the Colosseum, you’ll move beneath its shadowed arcades and peer into the exposed chambers below, where lifts and trapdoors once carried gladiators and animals into the arena. Please note: On some departures, the Papal Audience may restrict access to St. Peter’s Basilica. You’ll still spend time in St. Peter’s Square during your visit to Vatican City.
Rome is yours for the day, so you can browse Via del Corso and Via Nazionale, catching the scent of perfume as you pass their boutiques, or make your way towards the designer stores around the Spanish Steps. Alternatively, choose the Optional Experience south to Pompeii. Your Local Specialist leads you through the remains of the town buried beneath volcanic ash, along streets scored by ancient cart wheels, across raised stone crossings and into roofless houses where faded reds and ochres still color the walls. Vesuvius still stands beyond this 2,000-year-old town, with the Bay of Naples in the distance. You’ll taste a few local treats during the visit before returning to Rome past the Abbey of Montecassino, the site of a major battle in 1944. Back in the capital, you might sip cold prosecco at a cafe table in Piazza Navona, listening to water tumble from Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers while waiters thread between the tables.
Through Lazio and Umbria, you watch green valleys stretch below medieval towns set high on the hills, before continuing through Chianti to Florence. For your choice experience, you'll enter the Accademia Museum and study Michelangelo’s David, from the tension in his hands to the smooth pale marble shaped into muscle and skin. Or join your Travel Director at a local cafe, where you'll taste a typical Italian treat. Afterwards, continue on foot to Florence Cathedral, its bell tower and the baptistery, where bands of green, white and pink marble surround you as you trace the gilded scenes across the recreated Gates of Paradise. In Piazza della Signoria, you'll walk past Neptune, Hercules and Cacus along the front of Palazzo Vecchio, surrounded by Renaissance masterpieces in the city’s historic political heart.
On today’s Optional Experience, you’ll approach San Gimignano as its medieval towers climb above terracotta rooftops, then pass through the town walls into lanes of golden stone and shadowed archways. From the viewpoints, you gaze out at long sweeps of vineyards and dark cypress trees towards farmhouses scattered across the hills, then learn how rival families once raised San Gimignano’s towers to proclaim their wealth and power. Back in Florence, you explore the city’s tradition of fine craftsmanship, admiring the rich finish of its leatherwork and the delicate detail of its gold artistry. This evening, you’ll join your fellow travelers for a local dinner, tasting regional dishes and sharing the moments that have stayed with you from the day.
A leisurely morning in Florence is followed by Pisa, where your Local Specialist leads you into the Piazza dei Miracoli. You'll circle the baptistery, take in the cathedral’s striped marble and stand beneath the Leaning Tower as its carved arcades climb at an extraordinary slant against the sky. At the organic farm Il Poggio, you'll wander between olive trees and rows of grape vines, learning how the harvest is pressed into oil and transformed into wine. Then you sit down to taste both alongside an Italian meal prepared with locally sourced ingredients, with the Tuscan hills rolling beyond the table.
Through Emilia-Romagna, you'll travel north towards the Queen of the Adriatic, where the lagoon fills the horizon and slender campanili punctuate the waterline. At your luxurious hotel, you take in its elegant Venetian details, then draw back the curtains to chimney pots, arched windows and narrow canals. Wandering through this beautiful city, you may catch sight of a passing boat sending a wake shivering across the water below, breaking the city’s reflections into wavering color.
Aboard your private boat, you'll pass churches and palaces spanning five centuries of Venetian architecture. The Doge’s Palace stretches along the water in pink marble beside the Bridge of Sighs, which once linked the palace to its prisons and formed part of Casanova’s daring escape route. Around the corner, you'll find the gilded facade of St. Mark’s Basilica, its arches and mosaics gleaming above the square. At a traditional glassblowing workshop, you'll watch molten glass flare orange at the end of a blowpipe as expert artisans turn and shape it using skills passed down over centuries. Later, step into a gondola for a serenade through narrow canals, listening as the music wafts between balconies and stone bridges. With the afternoon free, you can explore Venice’s museums, galleries and churches, browse the shops around the Rialto Bridge or cruise to other lagoon islands to learn about the age-old traditions of fishermen and lace-makers.
With Venice yours for one more day, follow the calli into small campi, perhaps catching the scent of coffee as you pass old wellheads and timeworn façades. Inside one of the city’s 90 churches, you move from daylight into cool shadow, surrounded by Venetian paintings, gilded altars and richly worked fabrics. Or cross Dorsoduro to Peggy Guggenheim’s former home, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, where twentieth-century art fills the rooms beside the Grand Canal. Later, perhaps choose a canal-side table and sip local wine beside the quiet wash of the water, or sample fish fresh from the lagoon. This evening, you'll taste traditional Venetian dishes prepared with seasonal produce.
Your transfer takes you to Venice Marco Polo Airport, where you say goodbye to Italy and begin your journey home.
